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The Montreal Canadiens went from last place in the Eastern Conference in 2011-12 to a playoff spot with home-ice advantage this season.

It was a wonderful reversal for a team that is always going to live in the long shadow of its own rich history – a shadow that grows longer with each season without a Cup, now 20 years and counting – but the mood here as the playoffs draw near is edgy.

The optimism of the club’s 14-4-4 record through the beginning in March had melted like most of the snow as the calendar turned to April and the Habs struggled with a 3-6 record in the games leading up to the final weekend of the regular season.

Goaltender Carey Price has become the focal point of the fans’ angst, his slump of late coinciding with the team’s struggles. He was pulled in back-to-back games against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers and in his last 10 games his save percentage topped the .900 mark only twice.

“There’s a sense of worry,” said Rod Applebee, the manager of Hurley’s Irish Pub, a slapshot away from the Bell Centre on Crescent St. and a popular gathering spot for hockey fans of all stripes before and after games.

“It’s not the same feeling as it was three years ago. It’s more reserved. Deep down we’re all happy to be in the playoffs. The team has proven itself. It’s now up to Price to keep us in.”

That seems to be the Habs’ situation in a nutshell.

Three years ago, it was goaltender Jaroslav Halak, with Price riding the bench, leading the Habs on an unexpected run to the conference final as the eighth-seeded Canadiens upset the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Price, with his 8-15 career playoff record and sagging game of late, is now the man on the hot seat.

The focus on goaltending is always going to be intense in the post-season, but even moreso here where every goaltender is measured against the legends of players like Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.

Canadiens Hall of Famer and former general manager Serge Savard did just that with a pretty frank assessment of both the play of Price and the team this week.

Keep in mind Savard is a man who played with Dryden and was running the team when Roy was almost single-handedly winning Cups in 1986 and 1993.

Here’s how he answered a question from former teammate Chris Nilan, now a host on TSN 690, about rating Price as a goaltender:

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re talking to the wrong guy about rating goaltenders. At the beginning when this guy came up into the league, I really thought he was going to be a superstar. At times, he doesn’t look like he will be a superstar. Other nights, he does. I don’t know what to say. Even if the team doesn’t look too good lately, I think this guy in the net should have done a lot better to help the team when you go through such a tough period,” said Savard.

“If you remember Dryden and Patrick, if I look at those two, I don’t recall Patrick having a bad night, a night that he didn’t try. Some nights he might give a couple of soft goals, but very, very, very seldom. He always tried. He always tried to win each game and he did not give too many bad goals in a row and he kept us in the game all the time. Sometimes we didn’t deserve to win and we won. This guy, he’s not doing that right now. He shows us at times he’s able to do that, but he didn’t do it on a regular basis.”

Is the pressure in Montreal unfair to goaltenders?

“I don’t think so. In our time, if you looked back, every goaltender that played in Montreal won the Vezina Trophy, including Denis Herron. It was because of the way the team played, not only the defencemen. We were not allowed to give a goal against in our time. Playing that style, every goaltender was better because of the style the team played. That’s how you have to look at it. I rate this guy very highly, but he’s not showing it now, but the whole team is not playing very well at this time,” said Savard.

Early on, the Canadiens benefited from the moves made by rookie general manager Marc Bergevin and the kinder, gentler touch of coach Michel Therrien, the return of injured veterans Brian Gionta and Andrei Markov, who missed most of last season, and the emergence of rookie forwards Brendan Gallagher – a leading contender for rookie of the year honours – and Alex Galchenyuk.

Bergevin’s signing of free agent forward Brandon Prust helped the club address its lack of grit up front and the maturation of defenceman P.K. Subban’s game has him in the Norris Trophy conversation.

The focus is always going to be on Price, but the fact is there have been a lot of other issues for the Habs lately. The play of winger Max Pacioretty and centre David Desharnais, two-thirds of the Habs’ top line, has been weak and unproductive. Prust has been banged up and not nearly as effective. Veteran Travis Moen has been slow and not the physical presence he used to be.

The loss of defenceman Alexei Emelin for the rest of the season to a knee injury has been a significant loss. The Canadiens miss his hitting and the chemistry he had with Markov. Markov, who has missed most of the last two years with knee problems, looks like he hit a wall and is tired. He’s minus-7 in the nine games since Emelin’s injury (he was minus-3 in the previous 37 games).

In conjunction with Price’s dip in play, the penalty killing has been abysmal.

At the beginning of this season, just making the playoffs would have been viewed as a significant step forward for the new regime.

Well, things have changed.

From the barstools at Hurley’s to the pews at the Bell Centre, expectations have raised.

It’s spring time in Montreal and the Habs are in the playoffs. It’s what makes a city known for its vitality come truly alive.

In other cities, it might be enough just to make the playoffs.

Not here.

Not now.

TOP FIVE ISSUES FACING HABS

As the Montreal Canadiens return to the Stanley Cup playoffs, here are five issues that will dictate their chances of success:

1. The price isn’t right.

Goaltender Carey Price showed some signs of regaining his form in the win over the Winnipeg Jets Thursday night, but while that might be cause for optimism among Habs fans, it doesn’t erase the uneasiness of the previous two weeks. A save percentage well south of .900 lately could lead to a short spring.

2. Coming up short handed.

They say your best penalty killer is your goaltender and, given Price’s struggles lately, that would go a ways towards explaining the Habs’ problems. In a seven-game stretch heading into the last weekend of the regular season, they allowed 10 goals in 29 short-handed situations (65.5%). Awful. Really awful.

3. Desharnais to the Max.

Another encouraging sign was centre David Desharnais scoring two goals against the Jets after having just one in his previous 20 games. Pacioretty also scored in his third straight game that night after just scoring four in the previous 22. The pair makes ups two-thirds of the Habs’ so-called top line.

4. Hitting the wall.

Veteran defenceman Andrei Markov leads the club in average ice time (24 minutes and 14 seconds) and shifts per game (28). He has looked tired the last little while. The good news is a playoff schedule might be less demanding than the regular season.

5. Power up.

The 1-2 punch of Markov and P.K. Subban at the points has helped the power play (fifth in the NHL) reduce the impact of the team’s awful penalty killing. They gave up nine power-play goals in seven games heading into their final regular season game, but scored five power-play goals to mitigate the damage.